Raw Kale Pesto - Fast and Loose.

Sometimes, I have to throw dinner together quickly in order to sate the appetites of my two hungry, potentially feral little darlings. I'm usually pretty savvy with my economy-gastronomy approach to cooking, i.e. I make a huge pot of something on Monday and it forms the basis of at least three of our five evening meals through the week. But there's always the odd day where you fall between the gaps or you just need a filler meal. Cheap, quick, easy to hustle up and tasty. This is one of those sauces. We were out from 11.30 this morning but I had the foresight to throw a cup of cashew nuts in a jug of cold water to soak while we were out. Turns out - even though we ate some fantastic and filling vegetable and spicy bean soup over at my friend's house for lunch - we didn't get home again till 6pm. By which time we'd walked about two and a half miles in the snow - uphill - and at least one of us had done 45 minutes of Judo as part of our day! Being the awesome mum I am I sat them in front of 'The Simpsons' with some hot soya milk and in the time it took me to cook the spaghetti, we had pesto ready. And it was gooooood....

Raw Kale Pesto (serves 12)

1 cup cashew nuts, pre-soaked (you don't have to soak them but it just helps soften them for blending)
1 bag curly kale, rinsed
3 cloves of garlic, minced
1/2 cup nooch
1/2 cup fresh basil/1 tbsp creamed basil
2 tsp lemon juice
1/2 tsp salt
Enough oil (olive is best) to emulsify the ingredients
additional salt and freshly cracked black pepper to taste

Throw first 7 ingredients into food processor and blend to break down the cashews and the kale. Slowly pour oil through the funnel until your pesto stops resembling ricotta and starts resembling a thick, textured sauce. Toss about four tablespoons through some hot pasta with a good shredding of mozarella-style cheezly and serve with a garlicky baguette.
Om-nom-nom! If you make it the day before you need it the flavours have a chance to infuse and develop and the cashews break down more and - believe it or not - it tastes even better!


In Other News: Kids look cute in Christmas knits from my mum -

Thanks, Mama! Notice McGonnagle's slightly glazed, faraway expression in the above pic. She's so over being snapped for this blog!